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The only way is up

Atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide hit a high of 400 parts per million above the Mauna Loa observatory in Hawaii on 9 May. The symbolic milestone highlights the accelerating rise from 280 ppm in pre-industrial times. Stopping all emissions now would give Earth a good chance of keeping global warming below 2 °C.

Jolie cuts cancer risk

Angelina Jolie has had a double mastectomy to reduce her risk of developing breast cancer. The actress has a BRCA1 gene mutation associated with an 80 per cent risk of the cancer. A double mastectomy cuts this chance by up to 90 per cent in people at high risk, according to the UK’s National Health Service.

Primes next door

Prime numbers just got less lonely. Yitang Zhang of the University of New Hampshire has proved that an infinite number of primes have a “neighbour” that is also prime – at a distance of 70 million numbers away. The proof is a step towards solving the twin prime conjecture, which asks if there is an infinite number of primes separated by two numbers.

Cosmic magnet origin

We can now explain why the universe is magnetic. Leonardo Campanelli at the University of Bari in Italy has shown that tiny fluctuations present in the early universe could have been stretched into the magnetic fields around galaxies and cosmic voids seen today, via the process called inflation.

Everest is melting

The world’s highest mountain is losing its coat of ice. Satellite data presented at the American Geophysical Union meeting in Cancún, Mexico, shows that glaciers around Mount Everest have shrunk by 13 per cent in the past 50 years. Rising temperatures have forced the snow line 180 metres uphill.